Tired of white, gray, and steel kitchens? Okay, maybe not — but if you just want to take a visual vacation and walk on the wild side of kitchen design, we've pulled together ten tantalizing kitchens that will brighten your day. From jungle green to burnt orange to piercing teal, these spaces simply resonate with color.
1. Bright green cabinets complement nature's green outside. From Dwell.
2. This coral and seafoam kitchen is airy, vibrant, and relaxed — and right at home in its Florida locale. From This Old House.
3. From bright teal to jungle green, this open kitchen pulls in lots of brave colors for a fun feel. From Better Homes and Gardens.
4. This small kitchen in a sculptor's bungalow is simple and rustic, but exploding with color and personality. From Martha Stewart.
5. Varying shades of turquoise and a punch of green bring some playful warmth to a lot of stainless steel and tall ceilings. From Design*Sponge.
6. Pink, yellow, and blue — and a fish, a star, and lots of colorful mugs — make this kitchen in its "New Orleans" color palette a welcoming place to be. From Apartment Therapy.
7. This little kitchen just exudes warmth; wood and orange and red tones all blend together to balance the stark white of the cabinets. From James Braund via Desire to Inspire.
8. Balancing old and new — a china collection on a daringly colored column — gives this kitchen a modern twist on an old-world feel. From Casa e Jardim.
9. This kitchen resides in a home that's in a remodeled toy factory — hot pink, yellow, and purples enliven a tall, bright space. From Marie Claire Maison.
10. Glistening tiled backsplash? Yellow striped ceiling? Shiny red cabinet? Cute little dog? This kitchen meets all of those expectations! From California Home Design.
MORE COLORFUL KITCHENS ON APARTMENT THERAPY:
• Color in the Kitchen: Kitchen Bars that Pop!
• Inspiration: Sherbert Colors in the Kitchen
• Seeing Red: Bold Accents in the Kitchen
(Images: as credited above)
Before & After: Emily Henderson Transforms a Senior's Studio Space
Monica & Austin's Charming Bungalow
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Ercol Bar Stool
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
True Greek Recipe: Paximadi Bread Salad with Tomatoes, Feta and Capers
I love color, but yuck. Just, yuck.
Wow! A couple of these are beautiful! The green kitchen is fantastic!!
Oh rats. I wanted to like these -- my favorite kitchen was canary yellow, and my second was a comfortable dark green. And I'm holding off on redecorating my current kitchen until I talk my husband around to brighter colors than its current slate blue & dark oak.
But I don't. The only kitchens pictured that seem really livable are #7 and #10. Possibly #9, but it's hard to tell with the hyper-white lighting. I like the idea of #1 & #2 -- but the specific green (#1) and coral (#2) would be overpowering before coffee. The others are simply such hodge-podges that I don't get it.
Admittedly, I don't get a lot of modern art either -- so if you like it, go for it. But please don't be surprised if you go to sell the house and someone asks you to "fix the kitchen" before buying. Sorry. :(
I'm in love with the second kitchen. Still trying to figure out how to build a plate rack for my kitchen window!
oh, no. i admire the bravery but i dont want to see these at 7 a.m. or 7 p.m.
Bright colors in a kitchen makes a bold intellectual design statement, what what about creating a space that feels welcoming for cooking and chatting over a meal with friends and family. We know that red stimulates our hunger and blue dulls our appetites.Overly stimulating color schemes trigger loud conversation and restlessness. Great for fast food restaurants but not what we want in our homes. Color is about more than look, it creates a feeling in a space.
Some of these are gorgeous. A few look like they were designed by Peewee Herman. The first one turns me off the most. It looks over this beautiful outdoor space but all I see is acid green cabinets. Too much.
I could never do this myself (I doubt I could do a monochrome kitchen, either), but they're interesting to see. I think the bright, blocky colors make many of them look younger, except #2.
If I had that many windows in my kitchen as does picture #1, I wouldn't care what color the kitchen was painted. :o)
The others are a bit much for me and I adore color so I really wanted to like them all.
I really don't get #1. With all that greenery outside, wouldn't any other color have been a better choice?
Aside from the first one (which I find a bit scary) I'm actually liking the rest. My favorite is no. 4 :)
I also like number 4. Buttery yellow and vintage-looking appliances look so quaint. Love that sink too by the way.
I like color but in small doses. I found most of these to be too kindergartenish. I agree with ALLB -- not at 7 a.m. or 7 p.m.!
Some of these remind me of the commune-style houses of the late hippie era (I suppose it now goes under the moniker Bohemian). I think it's had it's day.
When I think bold color for a kitchen, I think of modern...lacquer cabinet doors, strong shapes...clean design.
I had a really guttural reaction to the first one - so much so, that it forced me to take time to figure out why. I love color, and the idea of using that much intensity doesn't bother me. I think the problem is that it's green. It ends up making the view look dull and ugly, instead of complementing it. I'm assuming they wanted to highlight the view judging by all those huge plates of glass looking out...
They should choose a color that allows the hillside to hold its own. Maybe purple or orange?
That first one made me think of the kitchen from this post, which was awesome. Its green is a less intense sea green, and the cabinets were colored with stain instead of laminate, so there's still something very natural about it.
I actually really like #9. I'm probably the only one. I just love the wooden drawers.
I like #9 too...except for the pink curtain and yellow chair. 2, 4 and (sort of) 6 are nice too. I don't know why but I really dig 2 and 4, though if I lived in kitchen 4 the rickety-ness and lack of counter space would make me nuts. 2 I think I could live with. I love that the fridge is up so you don't have to bend so far for the freezer.
@Tiffanyseattle, I think what kills that design is the insipid blue counter and backsplash. If they had gone with an organic, earthy color -- a limestone or slate-gray quartz, for instance -- it would have related the green to the outdoors and would have made the entire room calm down ( and made it more sophisticated, too). As it is, the green reads as acid and is too aggressive for the setting.
You guys are a bunch of curmudgeons! Good lord. "Not at 7am." PUH-LEEZE.
Go back to your minimalist earth-tone kitchens or whatever it is you're looking for. These are beautiful!
I love these! I'm always nervous with color myself but these are really great!
The first one gave me a headache BUT the rest make me so sad and wish I had been a little more risky in color choices!!!
The biggest thing throwing me off more than any color is the two refrigerators in #8.
A colorful kitchen doesn't need to be a hangover inducer (I'm looking at you, #1).
I think 2, 4, and 7 are the ones that work best because there's a good balance of bright colors with other colors that are being used as neutrals (white, wood, blue, buttery yellow). Even in the 2nd photo, there is a lot of blue but the blue is serene rather than bold, and it balances the orange very nicely. And in the 4th photo, there's a lot of bold blue but the yellow brings it back to earth.
The ones that I didn't like all have very bold, jarring colors that just kind of too active. It's not as clear where your eye should be settling.
Glad to see AT is back on track today, articles about design, what a concept!
I have a TINY kitchen. It's always had white walls, because I thought it would make it look bigger and I was afraid of bright colors in such a small space. It had rental-type cheap beige cabinets, which I currently can't afford to replace. But I decided to take a plunge. I painted one of the walls a beautiful salmon (Olympic "Scrumptious"). The ceiling is white, the other walls a very pale yellow. I painted the cabinets white. I have very colorful accents in there (which look beautiful on the salmon) and now the kitchen not only looks a bit bigger, it's such a cheery place! I say you have nothing to lose trying some bright colors to shake things up. It's been over a year and I'm still loving the color.
I love these! Except #1, which actually made me sit back in my chair. But then, by 7 a.m., I've been up for a WHILE, and if I'm not up for color, I just work out in the dark.
I suppose this is my punishment for having complained about the many sterile all-white or all-gray kitchens. OK, AT wins, and I'll say it: Even though I love bright colors, I'd rather have all-white than #1 or #5. I could probably live with most of the rest (and I love the ceiling in #10), but the first one looks like a science fiction mystery where the murder weapon is the color green.
I want to like these b/c I like pops of colour in rooms, but something is missing for me here. Maybe it's just not my taste.
Is that a yellow and white striped ceiling in the last one? Love that idea! There are so many places that could be applied!!
Clearly the Memphis style revival is upon us.
I like #2 and #4, probably because I like (non-neon) color AND vintage. Also a fan of tongue&groove ceilings and painted floors.
I'm surprised at how polarized the responses seem - most people seem to love them or hate them. IMO, some of them are amazing, but I like colour.
Oh, I love these so much! LOVE that green! I get why people would say it's overwhelming, but to me it's just exciting and energizing.
I like a pop of colour but most of these kitchens have too much. There are too many clashes and it would give me a headache clapping my eyes on these first thing in the morning. Everything looks so disjointed and thrown together. Just not restful enough for me. Shudder!
Wow I love color but yuck, just yuck is right. I actually like #1 the most but it would probably work using any color... except purple and possibly that color they actually chose. #3 is so revolting to me I wouldn't know where to start.
I love number 1, and I once had kitchen cabinets that colour (with black formica counters!) I think it that pale counter and backsplash do not complement the vibrant colour well, it would look better with stainless steel or concrete IMO.
I truly love them all! It's a nice change from the typical kitchen. The color gives the space a happy feeling and uniqueness. Happy to see a "thinking outside the box" kind of space.
Tess3 is pretty much telling my story, too. I love this post. I'm envious of the large windows and high ceilings in most of the kitchens, but the color lessons inspire regardless. Maybe this will be the summer of change for my kitchen walls & cheap cabinets.
That first one has some serious WAPOW! Gorgeous.
I like color, so these don't scare me off at all. Some I like more than others... but thats what makes the world interesting. It's almost the same with automobiles these days...very few people are willing to take a risk on something other than black, white or silver/grey. Shame since there just such common colors any more.
So liking color means you also like really cluttered?
I like the color but its too lighter.Just add something to make it good.
Wow, thanks for making me feel a little more daring in my own quest for a beautiful kitchen. So many possibilities!